"Compared to before it was stolen, the Memory Egg hasn't changed much. Its shell is just slightly duller."
Suzuki Shiro casually chatted with several people concerned about the Memory Egg. Compared with the egg itself, he seemed to find its experience more interesting:
"This can be considered a mark that it was once stolen by Kid. Actually, I once heard a theory from someone. He said this was an anti-counterfeiting technique developed by Kid—a stolen treasure would be sent for testing, yet none of its components showed any particularly obvious changes. So he believed it was actually an anti-counterfeiting method developed by Kid and the research team behind him.
"After obtaining a treasure, Kid uses some kind of hard-to-remove spray to coat the surface of the gem, causing its appearance to change noticeably. That way, even if Kid returns the treasure immediately after stealing it, people won't think he failed just because the interval before its return was too short. It also prevents others from impersonating him."
At that, Suzuki Shiro stroked his chin with interest. "I once had quite a few institutions study those stolen treasures, but we still couldn't figure out what that coating was made of. It seems Kid isn't just skilled at magic tricks—his technological backing is formidable too. No wonder he's such a famous international Great Thief."
Jiang Xia overheard the analysis with his sharp ears. Thinking of why those collections had become dull, he couldn't help tugging on Mist Tengu's wings, then fell silent guiltily. "..."
Research institutions probably couldn't answer that question. If they came to a Spirit Medium, though, it could be solved right away...
The others had heard of Kid's latest theft methods, but they had never owned any collections targeted by Kid and had not seen the changes firsthand.